It's "Oh So British" But ...

... What about the weather here in the UK?!?!  One minute I was basking in the sun, even getting my cropped trousers out, the next I'm putting my fleecy jim jams on!  I got a sharp reminder this evening that it is only April here and not the middle of summer as I was led to believe last week!

Anyhoo, I only popped in to show you a layout!  Yes that's right, I have been doing a bit of scrapping :)  Now I love sketches, they are great when my mojo is on holiday, so it makes sense to join a sketch group.  Someone posts a sketch, we have a month to come up with a layout and then we have a couple of reveal days, where we show off our layouts, before the next sketch is posted.  Last month's sketch looked like this:

I loved it and embraced it and came up with this:

He's another thing I love and embrace :)  I got to use up lots of older stash that I decided I had to 'use or lose'.....yeah, right, as IF I'm going to get rid of stash!!!

This is one of my favourite photos of Alfie and the title is one of the songs I'm always singing to him.

I'm off to snuggle under a blankie with Maddie and watch some of our favourite programmes.  I hope everyone who has snow is staying safe.

Take care and thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

Story Telling Sunday: Spring is a Laughing Matter!

It's the first Sunday of the month so that can mean only one thing................it's time to head to Sian's for Storytelling Sunday!

At this time of year I think of my dad lots, everywhere I look in the spring there is something that makes me think of him......and laugh!

I can remember many years ago he came home from work with a joke to tell us, the only trouble was he was laughing so much that he had trouble telling us the joke!  I thought I would share the joke with you today:

A man goes to a pet shop and buys a hamster, takes it home and lets it settle in.  The next day he wakes up and the hamster is dead! He returns to the pet shop and tells the manager what has happened.  The pet shop manager says "go home and boil the hamster in sugar and water because it will make a lovely jam". The man does this and then tastes the jam, it is so awful that he throws it out of the window.  The next morning the man looks out of the window and there are daffodils growing everywhere he threw the jam.  He returns to the pet shop and says to the manager "I made the jam and it tasted awful so I threw it in the garden, this morning there are daffodils growing in the garden everywhere I threw the jam!" The pet shop manager says "Don't be so silly, Sir, everyone knows........................

It's tulips from hamster jam!"  Boom boom!

Now it's not necessarily the joke that makes me laugh and I know it's a joke for people over a certain age because Maddie didn't get it.  It's remembering my dad doubled up with tears in his eyes barely able to talk as he tried to tell it, that is why I laugh when I see the daffodils and tulips growing in the spring :)

Now it's time for you to go and tell your story, visit Sian's blog and enjoy reading the other stories there.

I hope you've had a lovely weekend and are enjoying the sunshine
Jo xx

Look at the Size of This!

I have had a fantastic weekend so far. Yesterday I did some scrapping and then headed down to see Paul.

Today the weather is so gorgeous we decided to take this pretty lady for a walk to the beach:


I love the beach and today it was really bustling. Loads of people have travelled down to the coast to see this:


At eight and a half metres it's massive!


Makes me look tiny :)


I said to Paul that I would love to climb to the highest point, slide down and land in the sea :)

Now I'm sitting in the rocker with my feet up and about to cast on some knitting while Paul's flatmate cooks us a roast. Bliss :)

I hope your weekend has been as great as mine.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

WOYWW #145

Wow, I can't believe a week has passed already.  I haven't even had a chance to comment on last week's desks but I will, I promise.

A quick update on this week as it sort of ties in with my desk.  Paul came up on Monday which was lovely; we went to bingo but no winnings :( I had the day off work on Tuesday and we had a lovely day out and also got some bargains.  This was my bargain:

A new portable desk for my scrapping all for the great price of £3 :) It means that I don't have to always be tucked away in my bedroom, where my craft desk is, and can spend time with Maddie.  The height adjusts and the top tilts, so I can sit on the sofa or one of the dining table chairs.  I'm a very happy bunny.

I couldn't wait to use it so got cracking with a layout as soon as I got home:

The weekly challenge this week over at UKScrappers was to use three or more photos, to use paints and mists, and to doodle ~ the doodling had to be more than just a fake row of stitches.

My doodling was some music notes.

Head over to Julia's to see what everyone else has got on their desks, that's what I'm about to do!

I hope your week is going well
Jo xx

I've Been Scrapping!

This weekend hasn't seen me dashing down the motorway or getting the train into London to see Paul. This weekend I've had a lazy weekend at home and I've been scrapping!

I decided to do the Weekly Challenge over on UKScrappers.  The challenge was to use the sketch provided, use tearing or distressing and five different papers.  I came up with this:

Last year I went to the Vintage Fair on Southbank with my friend Sarah.  We had a lovely time and then lunch on the Tattershall Castle, one of the floating restaurants on Embankment.  I took this photo and kept laughing at it because her head looks exactly the same size as the London Eye!

I used up one of my old kits because, if I don't start using them up quickly, I'm going to become overrun by them!  To get rid of the leftover bits from the kit I decided to create my own Starting Point.  Starting Points are something Shimelle came up with last year and I love them.  I grabbed what was left from the kit, inked the edges, stuck them down and came up with this:

I'm not sure if I'll finish it today or another time, I haven't even hunted out a picture to go with it yet but at least the kit is used up and I have a started layout that I'm really pleased with so far.

The sun is shinning here and I'm going to play in the garden with Alfie for a while.

I hope your weekend is going well.
Jo xx

WOYWW

I haven't joined in with this for such a long time, mainly due to my desk being used as a bit of a dumping ground!

Well I thought enough's enough, if I show off my untidy desk then it will motivate me to sort it out and actually get some scrapping done on it!

Without further ado here it is:


It's covered in kits so I'm going to start another drive to get them used up! Hopefully there will be an improvement by next week :)

Head over to Julia's blog to see what everyone else is working on this week.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Playing With Paint!

Lots of you will know that when I'm talking about getting my dabbers out it means I'm heading off to bingo.  Last week, however, I had the chance to play with a different sort of dabber thanks to Sarah at SJ Crafts.

I came up with a couple of layouts using the Jenni Bowlin Paint Dabbers:

This one of my nephew George laying down the law with his Grandad on Christmas day.

And this one showing off the gorgeous flowers I got for my birthday.

If you want to see a few other ways of using paint dabbers, including how to utilise old stash, then head over to SJ Crafts to see the other ideas I came up with.

Happy Monday to you :)
Jo xx